LeMieux calls for Toyota hearings

George LeMieux is calling for a Senate hearing into the Toyota recall. (House hearings are scheduled to begin this week)

"The American public needs to know the level of risk associated with operating affected vehicles, and Congress needs to know whether federal regulators have fulfilled their proper roles," LeMieux said. "This is a matter of public safety. There's a lot of missing information right now about who knew what and when and we ought to expose that information to the public."

In a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman, John Rockefeller, LeMieux asked that the full committee convene hearings "immediately."

"Conflicting reports and apparent confusion on the part of some federal officials have left many drivers in Florida and across the country increasingly concerned about the safety of their vehicles," he wrote, in an apparent reference to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's since-retracted "stop driving your Toyota" comments last week. "Our committee needs to hold a hearing promptly to determine the danger posed to drivers by these defects, when the problems were first detected, what actions the company and federalregulators took once being alerted to the problems, and how we can ensure that proper safeguards are in place to avoid such events in the future."